Cycle Yoga Into Your Cross Training

It's time to get busy doing some other form of exercise beside riding in the great outdoors. Your body needs it as much as it needs cycling.

Not to worry—nobody's ripping the saddle out from under you. We're talking about cross-training here, adding another complimentary activity while you keep right on riding. In fact, the best part about taking your workouts to the yoga mat, besides the sheer fun of it, might be the way they'll take your cycling to another, higher level. The strength built from yoga will help you feel more relaxed in the saddle, stay more focused while climbing and descending and give you added strength and flexibility in every phase of your riding. Conversely, when you go back to the mat, you'll be able to hold poses longer, and try those "too-advanced-for-me'' postures you might otherwise shy away from.

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You know that in-the-moment feeling you love so much on your bike? You'll be delighted to find that flow in yoga, keeping a mindful, blissful groove going as you cross-train. How? By applying what you've already learned in practice. Here's how one yoga-loving cyclist expanded her exercise horizons-and reached new levels of fitness, inside and out.

The Biker/Swimmer

Name: Brandie Callachan, 33

Profession: Surgical technician

Yoga profile: Practicing 10 years

Outdoor profile: Bicycles 4 to 5 times a week, runs weekday mornings (for about an hour), and swims around twice a week for 45 to 60 minutes.

Early mornings are the best time of day for Brandie Callachan: That's when she hops on her bike and takes off through the sleepy streets of suburban Boston. "It's another form of yoga and meditation for me," she says. "The sound of the wind in my ears ... you just sort of dissolve into the landscape." She gets a similar feeling when she slips into her local pool. "Once you've learned to master the stroke, you find this rhythm in the water that just takes you way far inside yourself."

How yoga helps her sports: "I was a swimmer and cyclist before I found yoga. And I was never fully comfortable. What yoga did was allow me to dive into myself, explore my limitations. So now after 15 miles on the bike, here's this enormous hill, my legs are burning. How am I going to get up? Oh, I remember, it's just like in savasana: release, calm, and focus yourself. I'm going to relax my feet, drop my shoulders, take a breath, and then just go with it."

How her sports help her yoga: "For a lot of poses—the Warriors, for example—a strength foundation really helps. You spend hours on that bike, trust me, you have some strong legs! Or when you're holding yourself up in Plank pose. That's going to be more comfortable to sustain because you have the upper body and core strength that swimming helps develop."

Going with the flow: "Remember the last time you had a bad day, you weren't feeling well, and you went into your yoga class? The first couple of poses were difficult, but by the end of the class you say, 'Aaahhh.''' It works the same way in all these outdoor activities, Callachan believes-just get started, no matter how unfocused you feel pre-workout. Before you know it, you'll be in the flow. "You just need to be open to it."